Haritaki helps Cystic Fibrosis

Haritaki and Cystic Fibrosis

A remarkable young lady named Madhavi Pulakat Gavini,had a relative who was suffering from cystic fibrosis.

Fortunately for the person suffering the 17 year old girl was very interested in science and research. She asked her grandfather, who lived in India. Her grandfather was an ayurvedic doctor and he recommended that Madhavi test some of the standard ayurvedic herbal medicines to see if they would help.

One of the problems with cystic fibrosis is that the weakened immune system is easily compromised. One bacteria that causes major issues is Pseudomonas aeruginosa (P. aeruginosa), which causes infections in the lungs.

Madhavi tested the 10 different herbals against this bacteria and found that Haritaki, Terminalia chebula was highly effective. She had discovered a major breakthrough.

Breaking through bio film using Haritaki

However the Pseudomonas aeruginosa (P. aeruginosa) is covered with a protective coating that one can liken to a plastic bag. This protects the bacteria from injury. There are currently no drugs available that are able to penetrate this lining, also called a bio film. She had to find out if Haritaki could break through the biofilm, a sticky polysaccharide coat, that is found in complex biochemical forms.

After much research, she was able to isolate the bio film and using Haritaki found that indeed the Haritaki could penetrate this bio-film and destroy the Pseudomonas aeruginosa (P. aeruginosa).

She had made a major discovery. For this she won the prestigious Siemens National Competition and along with it a huge college scholarship valued at $50,000

Pseudomonas’s biofilm has two main functions: the first is protection, and the second is to allow the bacterium to adhere to smooth surfaces like the epithelial cells in our lungs. The biofilm’s stickiness also makes the cells adhere to plastic. So Madhavi put plastic micropipette tips in cultures of bacteria floating in water and growth medium. The stickier biofilm-forming bacteria grew on the tips, and this allowed Madhavi to “fish” out few biofilm-forming chromoisolates from the “rough” strain.

Now it was time to test Terminalia chebula against biofilm-forming P. aeruginosa. When Madhavi looked at the large zone of inhibition produced by Tc against her new isolate, she knew that she was looking at something big. None of the drugs for Pseudomonas infection currently on the market could do what Madhavi had just accomplished: inhibit both rough and biofilm-forming P. aeruginosa.

Madhavi’s grandfather never got to hear about Tc’s success, he died in the spring of 2005. But she still had another influential “who” to consult in India, her physician and Ayurveda practitioner grandmother. “She would go back and talk to my mother about her project,” says Dr. Pulakat. “She wanted to confirm the fact that Tc was not dangerous.” Madhavi’s grandmother reassured her that the extract has been used as a medicine for thousands of years, and is even safe enough to give to infants. Madhavi, hoping to turn Tc into an effective treatment for P. aeruginosa, set about trying to determine exactly what molecule in the extract was responsible for its action. Source http://www.ayurhelp.com/articles/terminalia-chebula-haritaki-cystic-fibrosis#.WBL1wi0rLIU